Sometimes it's better not to ask the question directly. I couldn't come here and ask "is druid a good fit for me?". Nobody can answer that question but me. But knowing if druids damage efficiencies are way off compared to other options can help me. And looking at direct numbers is still useful and the only research I can do on my own. It's hard finding information on druids because everyone I talk to only plays one role - healer. Yet we get all these tools for damage too. What I'd really like to find out is if a druid can actually be a healer and a dps or if their damage is just so inefficient that nobody can pull it off and that's why nobody seems to try. I get it. Druid is a healer. But am I wrong to try and push the boundaries and get everything I can out of the class? Any druids out there care to chime in on their own experiences trying to test these boundaries?
I've been pretty much a lurker on the forums for years, but felt I could contribute on this one a little. I am a raiding druid and pretty much focus solely on dps as much as I can. That doesn't mean I don't heal.. and it doesn't mean I don't have 5 heals loaded most of the time. We can play two roles for a reason, being able to throw heals when things get dicey is important, but I'd much rather dps all the time. In a raid setting I can sit in the top 10 on the dps chart on more than a few RoS raids, top 5 on a couple. Group setting is more challenging in higher dps groups because things sometimes die too quickly to really ramp up our dot dps. In those scenarios I stick with NFW/Sunflame and top dps nukes mostly, but the damage done still ends up being meaningful even in a high dps group. On namers I can do significant dps, but again, burst dps is not going to be our forte - longer fights are generally where it's at for druids in terms of maximizing burn dps. I guess the point is I'm in agreement with Szilent, any druid that only heals is totally under utilizing the class. Even if you're healing it takes all of a few seconds to swap targets and throw NFW on for some added dps (or sunflame/horde if you're worried about cast time, or a nuke if you're worried about mana). I get the whole mana drain thing, but I can pretty much heal indefinitely with 10-15% mana which leaves a lot of mana for dps. Alternate black wolf and grp black wolf constantly and you save a ton on mana cost for damage spells as well. There's just not much of an excuse for not being better dps than a merc at all times, even as a healer.
